Suchergebnisse

As the 6th largest country by land mass but 55th by population (exceeding 25 million), and ranked 13th by GDP per capita by the OECD, Australia is often characterised as an affluent developed Western democracy, and seeks to project an international image as a progressive, ethical, fair and tolerant society. This commentary explores inconsistencies between Australia's idealised identity as a modern egalitarian society concerned with the welfare of all and the economic and social reality for a significant and growing number of citizens; it highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these discrepancies. The commentary attributes contradictions in the Australian character and culture to the absence of a national charter of core values that institutionalises respect for the principles of human dignity and equality.

This paper analyzes the main determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the member countries of Mano River Union: Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. We use both data at the firm level and at the country level - and employ OLS and ARDL techniques - in order to examine the differences and similarities in FDI drivers across these four countries. Our results show that international trade, investment in infrastructures and access to credit have a positive impact on FDI. While credit and trade have a similar influence across countries, the effect of investment is distinct across Mano River members, which raises political implications for policy coordination among states. We also conclude that policies aimed to boost human capital, as well as political and economic stability, are relevant, as they augment FDI inflows.

Emergence and resurgence of infectious diseases are serious threats to population health. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused an enormous human toll and health crisis. Responses to the pandemic are significantly affecting the global economy. What is most concerning about COVID-19 is not the virus itself, but rather that it may compound with other and more serious crises. Climate change will likely affect human health, economy, and the society more than disease outbreaks. Governments at all levels, from local to international, can chart a greener, healthier, and equitable course for the future, investing in strategies and technologies that minimize and prevent risks, including those posed by climate change and the pandemic, promoting obligations to drastically reduce emissions, enhancing societal equality, improving community resilience, and achieving sustainable development goals.

Abstract: Migration politics in Finland are centered around "social integration" and "multiculturalism." While the stated aims of such politics are equality and social mobility, the results are oft en contradictory, perpetuating the hierarchies and inequalities they propose to overcome. Utilizing Guy Debord's notion of the "society of the spectacle," I argue that there is a neoliberal Integration Spectacle that projects the appearance of societal change but is, in reality, an immobilizing force that works to obscure a particular racialized social order. I draw on my fi eld-work in and around Varissuo, an international working-class suburb on the edge of Turku, western Finland, to analyze how both migrant residents of the area and the professionals within the so-called integration economy engage with, reproduce, and deal with this discrepancy. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

International audience ; Biological composites offer self-healing properties, biocompatibility, high responsivity to external stimuli, and multifunctionality, due, in part, to their complex, hierarchical microstructure. Such materials can be inexpensively grown, and self-assembled from the bottom up, enabling democratized, sustainable manufacturing routes for micro- and nano-devices. While biological composites have been shown to incorporate rich photonic structures, their phononic properties have hitherto remained unexplored. In this study, we demonstrate that biological composites in the form of micron-thick decellularized onion cell scaffolds behave as an organic phononic material, with the presence of band gaps forbidding the propagation of elastic waves in select frequency ranges. We show that the onion cells' phononic properties can be phenotypically tuned, and anticipate these findings will yield new biologically-derived, "green," and genetically tailorable phononic materials.

Afghanistan has been a focal state when it comes to international politics. With the advent of Taliban in Afghanistan, it has become central point of attention. The whole world is oblivious to Taliban's strategic moves. Therefore, it is imperative to comprehend that Afghanistan's socio-politico circumstances since the very start were dampened by the connectivity issue, which aggravated the political landscape of Afghanistan in order to understand the current scenario. This paper is an attempt to comprehend the current situation through a historical lens of understanding the emergence of Taliban in the first place. This paper shall also identify the historical emergence through chronological order and then shall see Taliban emergence and changing dynamics of neighboring countries. Keywords: Taliban, Perspective, Afghanistan, Strategic view, Neighboring Countries

International audience ; Abstract The Japanese government has announced a commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It envisages an important role for hydrogen in the nation's future energy economy. This paper explores the possibility that a significant source for this hydrogen could be produced by electrolysis fueled by power generated from offshore wind in China. Hydrogen could be delivered to Japan either as liquid, or bound to a chemical carrier such as toluene, or as a component of ammonia. The paper presents an analysis of factors determining the ultimate cost for this hydrogen, including expenses for production, storage, conversion, transport, and treatment at the destination. It concludes that the Chinese source could be delivered at a volume and cost consistent with Japan's idealized future projections.

International audience ; This article focuses on issues of land tenure to retrace the history of how Hawai'i's Mauna Kea volcano was 'discovered' by and for astronomers. In the aftermath of Hawai'i's 1959 accession to US statehood, an inhospitable tract of land was suddenly heralded as being 'probably the best site in the world' for the observation of the Moon, planets and stars. Political and academic institutions moved decisively to secure exclusive rights over the land and started to market it to off-island scientists. In the mid-1970s, a first major project, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, caused intense pushback from environmental activists and recreational users of the mountain. With the rebirth of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, the tension surrounding astronomical facilities on Mauna Kea only increased, foreshadowing the conflicts to come.

International audience ; In the Manchu period, Mongol herders were attached to their 'banner'-the basic territorial, administrative and military unit of Qing Mongolia. Their circuits of nomadization were reduced, and they were fined when found to cross its frontiers. While princes, great reincarnate lamas and long-distance traders (as well as some marginal categories such as badarchi/itinerant lamas and bandits) had many opportunities to travel within Mongolia and even abroad, it is generally assumed that commoners had no choice but stay in their pastures. Yet they had a main reason for undertaking long-distance travel: pilgrimage. This paper investigates the various modes of travel of these pilgrims, their equipment, organization and funding, and highlights the importance of a mode of locomotion which is rarely seen in Mongolia nowadays: walking.

International audience ; This working paper presents the main results of a national survey carried out in France between 14 April and 10 May 2020. To fight the pandemic, the French government has introduced policies aimed at limiting travel by the French, for example by encouraging companies to make extensive use of telecommuting. This survey analyzes the social, economic and political issues of this first lockdown in France by focusing on respondents' living conditions, sense of well-being, experience of gender inequalities, telecommuting hardships, and compliance with health rules, as well as their interpersonal relations (including the ways in which the lockdown increased social isolation or, conversely, promoted social support via ICT use). The main findings of this survey are summarized in this working paper.

The Australian Constitution is unique among constitutional instruments. It was primarily designed to federate self-governing British colonies within the British constitutional tradition and to establish institutions of federal government. As such, the constitutional instrument does not contain an entrenched bill of rights. Yet Australia has been a stable federal democracy since its establishment in 1901 and, by international standards, it is consistently assessed as maintaining high levels of personal freedom, political rights, civil liberties and the rule of law. This article considers the place of rights in the Australian federation against Australian constitutional history and its constitutional context. ; The support of Australian Research Council grant FT100100469 is gratefully acknowledged. Part of this article benefited from the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme: DP140101218.

International audience ; "This touch is political". Psychoanalytic listening and situated knowledge. This article presents a discussion on the relevance of the notion of situated knowledge for psychoanalytic treatment. We reflect on the challenges of caring for patients looking for a "safe" practitioner and therefore on the importance of the political dimension in a certain type of treatment. A clinical case is examined as a point of reference to the theoretical discussion. ; Cet article présente une discussion sur la pertinence de la notion de savoirs situés pour la clinique psychanalytique. A partir d'une situation clinique, nous réfléchissons aux enjeux de la prise en charge des patients à la recherche d'un praticien "safe" (ou sûr) et par conséquent à l'importance de la dimension politique dans un certain type de cure contemporaine.

International audience ; This paper analyses promises made by companies to various publics, including global investors, national public administrative bodies, and local populations. We speak of 'promise engineering' to describe both the integration of the making of promises in mining exploration operations, and the attempted articulation of promises made to different publics with different concerns. We focus on the French 'mining revival', which prompted exploration projects that became controversial, and integrated a government-led approach meant to introduce an objective of 'responsibility' in mining operations. Mining junior companies attempted to make promises that were both technical and social, while responsibility proved consistent with the crucial role of financial investment. We show that promise engineering offers an analytical lens for studying anticipation practices in industrial projects and the opposition these projects face.

International audience ; Biological composites offer self-healing properties, biocompatibility, high responsivity to external stimuli, and multifunctionality, due, in part, to their complex, hierarchical microstructure. Such materials can be inexpensively grown, and self-assembled from the bottom up, enabling democratized, sustainable manufacturing routes for micro- and nano-devices. While biological composites have been shown to incorporate rich photonic structures, their phononic properties have hitherto remained unexplored. In this study, we demonstrate that biological composites in the form of micron-thick decellularized onion cell scaffolds behave as an organic phononic material, with the presence of band gaps forbidding the propagation of elastic waves in select frequency ranges. We show that the onion cells' phononic properties can be phenotypically tuned, and anticipate these findings will yield new biologically-derived, "green," and genetically tailorable phononic materials.

Ethiopia's National Meteorology Agency (NMA), under the support of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), through the project Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday), is working together with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in East Africa to address the needs and demands of different stakeholders including governmental, non-governmental organizations and other non-state actors by conducting staff training to improve the generation of reliable, timely and accurate weather and seasonal forecasts. An interactive training took place from January 11-15, 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the participation of 26 NMA staff members selected from Regional Meteorological Service Centers and from the NMA Head Office, using local capacity and technical support from IRI and CCAFS East Africa.